Dear “Mother of Dragons”, “Minor Problems” and everyone else who has contacted us to express frustration about non-aligned Spring Breaks,
The Meta Mentor knows your pain and frustration. It continues as your kids progress through college and are home at random times, although at that point you can let them do their own thing. But your desire to spend time with your kids never abates!
We’re going to address two different aspects of the issues around the Albuquerque Public Schools (APS) and UNM Spring breaks.
The Institution
The Spring Break issue is of high importance to many assistant professors, who have pointed out that they don’t feel safe trying to work on this issue pre-tenure. That’s one role ADVANCE at UNM can play. As you identify issues that impact your work and quality of life – tell us! We’ll do what we can for issues related to faculty life.
One important thing to remember about Spring Break is that this problem impacts faculty, staff and students who have kids. Campus productivity plummets during the APS Spring Break as everyone scrambles to cope. If you are new to the campus, you might be surprised by the number of student parents in some of your classes. Several UNM presidents ago, there was a short-lived agreement between the APS superintendent and the UNM president to align Spring Breaks. Therefore, alignment is difficult but not impossible. We’ll look into why this agreement didn’t last and discuss this topic with the acting president.
One contributor suggested that some institutions have a membership to sittercity.com or other services, as a faculty and staff benefit. Please send the names of institutions who have done this (send them anonymously through the Meta Mentor link). The more examples we have, the stronger case we can make in discussions with HR and Academic Affairs.
UNM does have a policy on minors on campus.
Section 8 of this policy addresses faculty, staff and students bringing their children to work or class. You are allowed to do this occasionally (not in place of regular child care) and there are a few reasonable provisos. If your child can sit quietly in the back of your class and color, read or play a computer game then you can bring them if you need to. They are not allowed in hazardous areas, which may include your lab, depending on the type of research you do and their age.
Tips for surviving and hopefully enjoying Spring Break this year
Start by remembering to be sympathetic to staff and students who have the same issues. Then proceed to ruthlessly (and quietly) exploit the flexibility inherent in being a faculty member. We, at best, are offering only partial solutions here, take time to figure out what can work for you. Yes, the APS Spring Break will be stressful, but maybe you can also have some fun.
Start by viewing UNM’s Spring Break as a time to get some important work done.
- If the kids are in school, can you stay home where it is quiet and make progress on an article, grant proposal or book chapter? Finally find time to do that data analysis? Read the articles you need to be familiar with for a literature review?
- If you are doing fieldwork or lab work, is this a good time to spend some uninterrupted time with your grad students?
- Build in some rewards (Lunch or coffee with a friend? A walk in the foothills? A visit to a museum?) and maybe some family time. Maybe an evening or two can be more relaxed if you aren’t frantically working on a lecture for the next day. Maybe you can do something fun during the first weekend of our Spring Break (because we’ll all be spending the second weekend catching up on the things we didn’t get done that week!).
- In short, set an achievable goal and make a plan!
Ok. You have a plan to get some work done and have some family time during UNM’s Spring Break. Now, make a plan for your kids’ Spring Break. Include time for you to have some fun with them. You earned it! Obviously some of these suggestions are too late for this year, but you can think about them for next year.
Your mantra: It is ok if you aren’t around the department as much as usual for one week. It is ok if you aren’t around the department as much as usual for one week. It is ok if you enjoy spending time with your kids.
- Can you arrange your schedule to have a morning or afternoon to take the kids to the zoo, a movie, a park, a museum?
- Can you share a babysitter with a colleague?
Depending on your classes and teaching load:
- Does it make sense to give a test and trade favors with a colleague or grad student to have them proctor it?
- Does your class have an end-of-semester paper, project or group effort? Can you give them a class period as library time or time for groups to work?
- Is there a museum exhibit (maybe even on campus) that you can ask them to visit and write about at some point during that week, in lieu of a class?
- Can you trade with a colleague and guest lecture in each other’s classes so you each get a day “off”?
- Can you do some work at home and allow the kids to watch cartoons and videos or play games for longer than you normally allow?
- Can you cancel office hours for that week and add extra hours the week before and after, or the next time there is a test?
- Can you bribe your kid to sit in the back of your class and behave?
- Allow yourself some flexibility to think about that week differently than other weeks of the semester.
- Please pass along other ideas and we’ll keep adding to this list!
There are a range of programs available during the APS Spring Break, including on campus. Many of these fill quickly and might not be available now. However, we’ll remind you about this list next Fall before they become open.
We’ve compiled a list of spring break camps that look so fun that we’d like to go. Please let us know if we’ve missed your favorite! Also, it’s none too early to look for summer camps as well. Many of the places listed also will entertain your darlings while you try to focus on work this summer. One that caught our eye is the summer Farm Camp at the Los Ranchos Agri-Nature Center.
Engineering for Kids: is your kid interested in learning code? What about Minecraft Edu? EFK has classes for budding techies.
Keshet These spring break summer dance camps are for girls and boys.
Explora Have a scientific student? Explora is your place.
Explora also will offer a Public School Vernal Holiday camp on April 14. (Good Friday)
Your child can’t get enough of the zoo and the bio park? Check out this city spring break camp, where students tour the educational facilities downtown. (The zoo, aquarium and botanical gardens all have summer camps that are in high demand.)
Albuquerque Academy offers spring break camps, as does Sandia Prep.
UNM’s Continuing Education also is offering a variety of spring break camps this year, from yoga and acting to painting with pastels.
Good luck – particularly those of you with three Spring Breaks to cope with! Please share additional suggestions and we’ll keep updating our lists.
Meta Mentor
